Documents

The Israel Lobby Archive obtained
405 pages from the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act. The
released documents are news clippings maintained by the FBI during its
espionage investigation of Department of Defense Colonel Lawrence Franklin and AIPAC staffers
Keith Weissman and Steven J. Rosen.

The broad range of content clipped by the FBI ranges from Antiwar.com "Chalabi-gate:
None Dare Call It Treason" by Justin Raimondo (05/28/2004) to The Nation
"Still Dreaming of Tehran" by Robert Dreyfuss and Laura Rosen
(04/12/2004).

Among the earlier files clipped by the FBI are the NewsHour with
Jim Lehrer transcript of a program called "Back to Iraq?" which aired on
PBS on May 4, 1998. The broadcast includes content from R. James Woolsey
and Zalmay Khalizad. Also in the file is the Washington
Post "Meetings with Iran-Contra Arms Dealer Confirmed" by Bradley
Graham and Peter Slevin dated August 9, 2003. The most recent content is
from the Politico "Leniency for AIPAC Leaker" by Josh Gerstein on
06/12/2009.

There is little original FBI content in the clippings. On page 337 the
FBI boxed a paragraph from reporter Laura Rozen's article "The Big Chill"
in The Nation on July 14, 2005.

"The Nation has learned that among the documents the FBI has in its
possession is a memo written by Rosen in 1983, soon after he joined
AIPAC, to his then-boss describing his having been informed about the
contents of a classified draft of a White House position paper
concerning
the Middle East and telling his boss that their inside knowledge of this
draft might enable the group to influence the final document. The
significance would seem to be an effort by the FBI to establish a
pattern of Rosen's accessing classified information to which he was not
authorized, not just from Franklin but over many years. Rosen's
attorneys declined to comment on the allegation." (NOTE: By 1984
the US Trade Representative called in the FBI to investigate Rosen's
AIPAC research team over theft of classified US trade data
ARCHIVE)

On August 12, 2005 Tracey J. Bridges of the FBI Washington Field Office
emailed an article by Ron Kampeas and Matthew E. Berger titled "Two Ex-AIPAC
Staffers Indicted". The email subject line was "WOO HOO for you guys..."

On October 7, 2005 Peter Strozok emailed another Kampeas article to
colleagues noting, "Did you see the JTA [Jewish Telegraphic Agency]?
Need to start calling Reilly 'That's Classified' instead!" The passage
that triggered the FBI remark was an account of courtroom drama during
which Col Lawrence Franklin began to disclose classified NDI he had
passed to AIPAC.

"'It was a list of murders' Franklin began to explain to U.S. District
Judge T. S. Ellis when Thomas Reilly, a youthful, red-haired lawyer from
the Justice Department, leapt from his seat, shouting 'Your Honor,
that's classified!'"

The FBI clipping file also includes a 10/20/2006 Time Magazine
article detailing a federal investigation into whether representative
Jane Harman, in exchange for help from AIPAC to obtain leadership of the
House Intelligence Panel, agreed to intervene with the Bush administration to
go easy on Weissman and Rosen.

Another March 17, 2009 FBI email forwarded a Washington Times
article about how Uzi Arad was barred for two years from entering the US
on the grounds that he was an intelligence risk.

The last file in the FBI clippings is a Politico.com article titled
"Leniency for AIPAC Leaker" written by Josh Gerstein on June 11, 2009.
The article details how, after charges were dropped against Rosen and
Weissman, the Judge reduced Lawrence Franklin's sentence to 10 months in
"community confinement." Prosecutors sought reduction to 8 years, while
counsel for Franklin sought "no charges at all."

Profile of
Farid Ghadry, background on Ahmed Chalabi's warning to Iran that
the US had broken Iran's diplomatic codes, Karen Kwiatowski
analysis of Israelis and neoconservatives in the Pentagon, 2003
bulletin from the National Council of Resistance of Iran warning
of an Iranian attack on Iraq, Israeli activity in Kurdistan,
media leaks of FBI's investigation into Lawrence Franklin.

Walter Pincus article about
Viet D. Dinh call that AIPAC espionage charges be dropped,
JTA article about fears that a trial could expose AIPAC
"lobbying practices", article about how overseas revenge
killings can be precipitated by US criminal convictions,
sectarian analysis of Iran, Pakistan, congresswoman Jane
Harman's role in AIPAC espionage clemency bid, reports that data
at heart of espionage case "not really Top Secret". Judge T.S.
Ellis decision to drop charges against Rosen and Weissman, "You
all did a very good job."

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C.
Section 107, this material is presented
without profit for research and educational purposes,
most importantly understanding how government functions during law
enforcement actions involving Israel and its lobbyists.
The Israel Lobby Archive has no affiliation
whatsoever with the originators of
the articles clipped by the
FBI nor is it endorsed or sponsored by
the originator.